Lewis: Six-year-old eyes presidential race

Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2008

Lisa

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A couple of weeks ago, I called my 6-year-old daughter over to the computer to show her photos of the presidential candidates. I told her she was living at an important time in history - the first time that someone other than a white male has stood a real chance of becoming our nation's president. I detected only slight interest from her in what I was saying, which was a little disappointing.

Just a few days before this, I had remarked on the fact that for a long time, only white men were allowed to vote. At this, my daughter looked at me as I must've looked at my mother the day she told me she was not allowed to continue teaching when she became pregnant with my brother. It was a look of utter perplexity like, "Why on earth not?"

Exactly a week ago, we passed a couple on the road holding up signs bearing the name of their presidential favorite, and Ella asked me what the signs said. I reminded her about seeing this particular candidate's picture online and gave her a basic overview of how the race for the presidency would unfold, beginning with the "Super Tuesday" vote. She asked if she could vote, and was disappointed to learn that she's a tad too young. After a moment of quiet reflection, I heard her say under her breath, "I'm gonna give you 10,000 votes to take in for the woman."

I couldn't help but smile after hearing my budding feminist in the backseat. However, I knew I'd better take advantage of this unique teaching moment. I told Ella that it wouldn't make sense to vote for "the woman" solely on the basis of her womanhood. Then I threw out a series of "what ifs" - essentially asking her to consider what if someone else was more qualified for the job. She seemed to get my point, but remained loyal to "the woman."

On Wednesday morning, I gave Ella an update on who was still in the running. She somehow easily understood that only one person could be chosen for each "team." After a short discussion about what presidents actually do ("Do they just sit in their office and eat candy all day?"), she made an interesting observation - that no matter what the outcome, there would either be only white candidates or only male candidates left in the race. On this particular morning, she was not so gung ho about "the woman" winning. I inferred that she was trying to work out in her little head how to even the score a bit more.

Oprah, if you're reading this, it's not too early to think about 2012.